The present invention is directed to an apparatus for cleaning up oil spills on bodies of fresh or salt water and, more particularly, concerns a small waterplane area twin hull boat equipped with a scoop for recovering oil and water and equipment for continuous flow separation and processing of the recovered oil and water into water that is clean enough to be returned to the body of water and oil that can be used for its intended commercial purpose without further processing.
An oil spill can be devastating to the environment if it is not quickly and effectively cleaned up. Rapid deployment of an oil spill cleanup system is necessary so that the oil does not have time to spread and emulsify with the water. It is not only important to recover as much of the spilled oil as possible to protect the environment, but also to recover the oil for commercial use in order to minimize the loss of a valuable natural resource and to mitigate the financial loss to the oil company involved. Oil spill cleanup operations using conventional oil spill cleanup systems can be tremendously expensive in terms of equipment, manpower, transportation, storage, and processing costs.
Typically, an oil spill is cleaned up by deploying a large number of floating booms to surround a portion of the spill, using a number of skimming craft for skimming the oil and water mixture from the surface of the body of water, pumping this recovered oil and water mixture into temporary floating storage vessels, such as rubber or plastic bladders, barges, or small tankers, then transferring the recovered oil and water mixture from the temporary floating storage vessels to one or more large tanker ships for transporting it to a land based processing facility, and lastly processing this mixture to separate the oil and water, purify the oil so it may be used commercially, and purify the water so it can be returned to the body of water or disposed of safely. In this conventional cleanup process the recovered oil and water mixture requires a great deal of storage and transportation facilities because water accounts for a large portion of the mixture, for example 70% of the volume of recovered material.
Conventional oil skimming apparatus for removing oil films from the surface of large bodies of water using, for example, a floating vessel with booms attached thereto for collecting the water and oil mixture and having a settling tank for separating the oil and water mixture, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,348,690, are rendered virtually ineffective by rough seas and do not provide for high volume continuous processing and separation of the recovered oil and water mixture. Further, such conventional oil spill cleanup systems are not capable of being transported rapidly for rapid deployment, such as by helicopter or high speed boat, require excessive storage space for the recovered oil and water mixture, and involve large transportation costs for transferring the recovered oil and water to a land based processing facility.
Moreover, conventional oil spill cleanup equipment, such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,756,414, and 4,368,122, provide for the skimming of an oil and water mixture from the surface of a body of contaminated water, but require that this skimmed oil and water mixture be stored and later processed to separate the oil and water and clean the oil for commercial use. Such a multi-step process of collecting, storing, and processing the oil and water is not cost effective since the high water content of the recovered oil and water mixture unnecessarily increases storage and transportation costs and the processing facilities may be located a great distance away from the oil spill requiring the recovered oil and water to be shipped over large distances.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,743,095 describes a vortex flow system for separating oil from an oil and water mixture useful in oil spill cleanup equipment having a skimmer for removing a mixture of oil and water from the surface of the contaminated body of water, a high capacity pump, one or more vortex separators, a tank for temporary storage of the recovered oil, and exhaust nozzles for returning water with a greatly reduced amount of oil to the body of water from which it was removed. Current regulations which address environmental issues require that there be a very low level of contaminants in water which is returned to the body of water from which it was removed. As such, it is unlikely that a vortex separator can provide sufficient cleaning of the contaminated water at high flow rates to allow the water to be returned directly to the body of water from which it was removed. Further, such a vortex flow system does not provide for processing of the recovered oil so that it is in condition to be used commercially, such as at a refinery, without further processing.
Thus, there exists a need for an improved oil spill cleanup apparatus and method which provides for rapid deployment, is effective in both calm and rough seas, can quickly recover large quantities of oil and water, and can separate and process the returned to the body of water from which it was removed and oil to to be used for its intended commercial purpose without further processing.